Kiss Me or Kill Me
by musefatale
Summary: Jack/Ralph. Written in 2005.


Kiss Me or Kill Me

It was one of those nights on the island where the wind whipped hard and it was more than a little cold. Ralph was thankful for the fact that tonight he had fire watch tonight. He sat silently staring at the shapes that the fire made. It could lure you in, fire, and make you think that there are things in the flames that are not there. The licking tendrils of fire entranced him and sent him into a world where good prevailed over evil. He remembered home and sitting in front of the fireplace in the den of his house with his mother and father. He could faintly remember the smell of his mother's perfume, light and feminine, and almost began to cry. A sound behind him startled him out of his requiem.

Jack stood behind him, gazing over his shoulder with nearly the same entranced look about his face.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Jack asked to no one in particular.

Ralph nodded and leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his knees pretending that the act was to keep him warm instead of to shelter him from the fear and loathing that he had for Jack. How could Jack appreciate beauty when all he knew was violence and death?

"It's so deadly, fire is." Jack continued. "If it gets out of control it would destroy everything in its path. It is uncaring and does not discriminate against anyone. Someone could be good or bad or neither and it would still destroy them." He moved and sat down next to Ralph, extending his legs and leaning back on the palms of his hands. "It's the most honest creature in the world. It does not lie or give you false hope. You know that it is going to destroy you. And look at you, giving into it..." Jack smirked at Ralph.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ralph retorted.

"Sure you do. I saw you. You were lost in it. You want it to take you over, to destroy you, to release you. Why do you stop yourself from giving into what you know is only the natural way of life."

"It is evil."

Jack laughed. "Evil is live spelled backwards, Ralph. Did you ever think about that?" He crossed his legs and placed his elbows on his legs, leaning forward and staring at Ralph. "Are you trying to tell me that you've never done anything evil?"

"Yes."

"So you're saying that you've never stolen anything that you want? Not even a piece of candy? Are you saying that you never hit anyone or anything? That you've never gotten mad at anyone, for any reason?"

"No..."

"No you haven't or no that's not what you're saying?"

"That's not what I'm saying. That is not what I mean. I've never killed anything, Jack."

"You've never squashed a bug or picked a flower? That's killing something."

"That's not what I meant!" Ralph yelled at Jack.

Jack laughed and shook his head. This was all very hilarious. He had never seen Ralph get so upset with anyone else but him. Jack knew that he had a sort of power over Ralph; he knew his weakness: He was still attached to the other world, the world that they would never truly get back to. What was a boy like Jack to do but take advantage of such a weakness, visible to everyone in their little world. Jack sat up straight again and looked curiously at Ralph.

"What do you want? What do you really want? Other than rescue, if you had to be stuck on this island forever, what would you want from it?"

"Civility." Ralph said softly, staring back into the flames. "Order, peace, discipline and..." He trailed off on the thought, getting lost in the faint smell of smoke and the heat radiating from the fire."

Jack leaned forward on his hands and knees, his legs still crossed underneath him, and pressed his lips chastely against Ralph's. Caught off guard, Ralph back away and looked wide-eyed at Jack.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Ralph demanded.

"Giving you the things you want that you don't want to say..." Jack said, still hovering inches from Ralph's open mouth. "...closeness and intimacy." He finished.

"You're out of your mind, Jack. I do not want that, especially not from you!" He said, shoving Jack away from him fiercely. "I hate you!"

"Passion, Ralph. Hate is passion and passion is what I am offering to you, in whatever form it may come in. Who knows, maybe we'll just kill each other and never have to speak of it."

Ralph stared blankly at Jack, is mouth still wide in shock. He could not believe what Jack was saying, what he was offering. He could not fathom doing the things that he thought that Jack was suggesting. He did not even know what it was that Jack wanted to do. He had heard raunchy locker room talk about masturbation and blowjobs between boys and even a few rare pieces of heterosexual meetings, but he was young. Youth was supposed to have protection from these things. Circumstances on the island were so much different that what they were supposed to be in the real world.

"So what am I going to do, Ralph? Kiss you or kill you?" One way or another, I am going to do what I want to do. You can't stop that from happening."

"You're mean Jack. You're a horrible person."

Jack laughed. "So what?" He shot back, looking smugly at his potential victim. "Give me a break, Ralph. Just say yes or no and we will leave it at that. No one will know, not even your precious little Piggy, no Simon, no Samneric. No one will know anything had ever happened but you and me. If you say no, I'll just take my fire and be on my way."

Ralph nodded his head slowly, avoiding all eye contact with Jack. His body started to shake as if a wave of cold had washed over him. What it truly was that was making him shake was the fear of what was happening. There had been no physical contact other than the dry kiss minutes ago, but he still felt violated.

Jack inched forward, closing the distance between that two on his hands and knees and gently pressed his lips against Ralph's again. This time his lips were soft and slightly wet, they were warm and full of... passion. Ralph shifted his weight to his knees and moved so that he was sitting back on his shins, just as Jack was. His tattered shorts left no doubt to the fact that his body was reacting to this slow, deep kiss. With a downward glance, he noticed that Jack was feeling the same overwhelming physical tug as he was. Jack slipped his hand around to the back of Ralph's neck and pulled him in deeper, closer, and gently slid his tongue between Ralph's lips. Ralph tried to pull away but Jack's hold on his neck was firm. Jack pressed himself fully against Ralph. Without hesitation, Ralph wrapped his arms around Jack's waist as he had seen people do in the movies. Under his lips, he could feel Jack smile at the action.

Jack broke away and stared into Ralph's eyes. "Was that so bad?" He asked.

"N-no..." Ralph stuttered in reply.

"You want me to do other things?" Jack asked, purposefully vague.

Ralph nodded, sitting firmly back down in the sand. Jack crawled slowly on top of him, easing Ralph back onto the warm sand below. Again, he pressed his lips to Ralph's, a fiery passion flowing from one boy into the other as their bodies came into contact once more. Jack leaned back and nudged Ralph over with his knee. Ralph knelt with his back towards Jack, trying to look over his shoulder at what the bigger boy was doing. Jack tugged down Ralph's shorts, the pulled his own off, freeing that that strained to be free.

Ralph's eyes grew wide and he omitted a grunting breath as Jack pressed into him. Jack leaned against Ralph's back and rocked his hips gently. He pressed his forehead into Ralph's shoulder and kissed his shoulder blade, relying completely on his instinct for what he was supposed to do. Ralph let his head fall back against Jack's shoulder as he stared up at the stars as the blurred in front of his eyes.

After climax, the two boys fell into a heap in the sand. Ralph lay with his back against Jack's chest and Jack let one arm rest loosely around Ralph's waist. They watched the fire without a word or any acknowledgement of what had happened until the sun began to rise over the distant blue horizon of the sea. Ralph got up, pulled his shorts back on and make the trek down the mountain, leaving Jack behind.


End file.
